Letters were sent to the 7 people who died in the tram crash inviting them to a survivors' event

The family of 52-year-old Philip Logan were "fuming" after one of the letters from the British Transport Police (BTP) with his name and address handwritten on the front was posted through their letterbox earlier this month

The letter sent to Philip Logan - his address handwritten - by the British Transport Police (Image: The Logan family)

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Letters were accidentally sent to the seven victims who lost their lives in the Croydon tram crash inviting them to a survivors' event.

The family of 52-year-old Philip Logan were "fuming" after one of the letters from the British Transport Police (BTP) with his name and address handwritten on the front was posted through their letterbox earlier this month.

The heartfelt letter was written by the wife of a survivor, asking other survivors if they would like to meet and discuss their experience and was sent on her behalf by the BTP.

But as well as the BTP sending the letter to survivors of the tragedy it mistakenly sent it to those who died in the derailment too.

On top of this, the Logans and other bereaved families didn't receive the second interim report by the Rail Accident Investigation Branch (RAIB), which was sent to them and survivors in the post, until after it had been publicly released.

They only found out that the report had been published on Monday when they spoke to the Advertiser.

Danielle Whetter, Mr Logan's granddaughter, said: "Receiving the letter was a bit of a kick in the teeth.

"As far as we're concerned, we've sorted out everything financially that would have been linked to Grandad so we weren't expecting any letters to him to come with his name on.

"How could someone get it so wrong?

"These seven people, their faces, their names, the areas where they were from have been plastered all over the national news, how can you can get it so wrong?"

Miss Whetter's grandmother, Marilyn, was called by the BTP warning her that the letter was possibly arriving about an hour before she found it in the letterbox of her home in Headley Drive, New Addington.

Marilyn Logan with her husband's ashes in a Bacardi bottle - a wish he wanted fulfilled after he died (Image: David Cook)

The BTP agreed to send the letter out to all survivors on behalf of its author, as the force has the addresses and names of all of those on the tram when it derailed on November 9.

But the police force also sent it to all of the victims, Mr Logan, Phil Seary, Dane Chinnery, Donald Collett, Robert Huxley, Dorota Rynkiewicz and Mark Smith.

Miss Whetter, 26, said: "I wasn't there at the time but my nan was quite distressed when she opened it which is totally understandable.

"She was kind of prepared, but by only about half an hour to an hour before.

"This is a lack of care and attention."

In the hours and days after the crash the family did not know what had happened to Mr Logan.

They were at first told he was injured and had been taken to St George's.

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When they arrived at the hospital, in Tooting, they were told initially he wasn't there – and then also told by a policeman that he wasn't there.

Two days later, the family came to the realisation Mr Logan was not coming home but had not been told he had been formally identified.

According to Mrs Logan, the liaison officer was on his way to tell the family he was one of the victims on the Saturday of that week, but the news had been released to the media first.

He was "really apologetic" for that happening, Mrs Logan said at the time.

In the days following the crash, they also received a "bog-standard" letter from Transport for London (TfL), which also didn't tell the families that TfL would pay for the funerals of the seven victims, with that news also having to be provided by the Advertiser first.

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And on Monday morning when the second RAIB interim report was published, while the Logans knew another report was being made public they did not have a copy.

The RAIB insists it posted the report but it did not arrive on time.

Miss Whetter said: "We received the news he had been formally identified through Sky News.

"So again the police didn't get to us in time. Surely that would have been their priority so we could release our statement and release information and have a bit of time to ourselves to take it in.

"All of the [other] statements [since the first interim report] we've found out from yourself [the Advertiser]."

An officer visited the Logan family last Wednesday to explain what had happened with regards to the letter about the survivors' event and apologised.

Miss Whetter said: "How many times are they and other authorities going to apologise for the mess ups that are happening?"

The Advertiser understands the letter was not sent to Alfred Dorris – the tram driver arrested on suspicion of manslaughter but bailed until May.

A spokeswoman for the BTP said: "We are working hard to ensure that everyone involved in the Croydon tram derailment is receiving the support they need and sent out letters to invite people to a forum being organised by one of the survivors.

"Due to human error, the list of people we provided included the bereaved families.

"As soon as this was realised, we immediately contacted each family through their specially trained officers to ensure they had warning before a letter arrived.

"We are sorry for any unnecessary hurt this may have caused them."

The BTP added that it was "looking into" who wrote the address on the letters.

A spokesman for the RAIB said: "Several families did not receive their copies of our interim report in the post on time.

"Where we were made aware that a report had not been received, we dispatched further copies. Unfortunately, not everyone received the report before it was published. We are sorry that this has happened.

"We take our responsibility to keep victims' families informed extremely seriously and are looking at how this can be avoided in the future.

"All of the families of the people who lost their lives in the accident were offered a briefing of the content of our interim report with one of our inspectors, before the report was published.

"We will continue to stay in contact with the families and those involved in the accident to keep them updated throughout our investigation."